


Warm snow

by luffywhatelse



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Childhood friends are now lovers, Dating, Dorks in Love, EdxWin, EdxWinry, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Love, Newly Engaged, Post-Canon, Post-Fullmetal Alchemist Manga, Post-Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Romance, Shy, Snow, Snowball Fight, dork lovers, edwin - Freeform, fma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26816197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luffywhatelse/pseuds/luffywhatelse
Summary: Once evening came, they all collapsed relatively early, in one of the beds or in a sleeping bag near the fireplace of the small mountain house they had rented for that post-Christmas weekend.They had grown up, no doubt, and even though they looked the same as ever, there had been some major changes.Everyone knew about it.That was why, on Sunday morning, Alphonse and Mei had set off early, leaving the happy 'freak' couple alone.Instead of enjoying it, what were they doing? They slept too much, quarreled and turned a fight into a challenge. It was puzzling how they could play like that, although every look and action between the two of them suggested desire and... tension.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Warm snow

The previous day had been very tiring. Mei had dragged everyone - without exception, even Edward had to surrender to her insistence and almost maddening enthusiasm - up and down the cableway all day. It had been fun, of course, but once evening came they all collapsed relatively early, in one of the beds or in a sleeping bag near the fireplace of the small mountain house they had rented for that post-Christmas weekend.

It had been a long time since Edward and Alphonse had last traveled together. They had grown up, no doubt, and even though they looked the same as ever, there had been some major changes.

Everyone knew about it.

That was why, on Sunday morning, Alphonse and Mei had left early and the happy 'freak' couple had found two notes from Alphonse, placed on the table in the dining room.

Ed, who was a little more alert than Winry when he woke up, took the first piece of paper and recognized his brother's familiar handwriting:

_Nii-san please, try not to ignore Winry... you know what I mean, don't you?_

He blushed and immediately crumpled the note hoping that Winry hadn't noticed anything. Since they got back home, Alphonse had grown bolder, less naive and more open about certain topics that embarrassed his older brother. Edward still had to get used to it, especially since he could read him perfectly, like an open book.

Winry also shared a similar problem, judging by her expression; she went to the table, perplexed, and grabbed the other note, the one Alphonse had written only for her. Immediately afterwards her face was flushed and she threw it away, balled up.

"W-what the hell ?!" she exclaimed immediately, glaring at him as if it were his fault.

"They left," Edward replied in a fake impassive tone, as if he wasn't even slightly nervous at the idea of being alone with her in that house, now all to themselves; no, he wasn't nervous at all that this would probably be their only chance to-

"... What do we do now?" Winry didn't seem aware of it, though.

"I'll read a book," he murmured flatly, perhaps even a little annoyed by Winry's lack of consideration and immediately started to head for the bedroom.

"WHA— Oh but please," Winry grumbled, grabbing his arm and stopping him before he could take a few more steps towards the other room. Ed was surprised by her but, more than anything else, he was surprised at how his heart started beating a little faster than usual at the sight of Winry's gaze. "We're in the mountains and you want to spend the day reading, huh?" she continued, dragging him into the kitchen; he didn't resist. “It's practically lunchtime, so let's eat something now and go out later. So then… then— ” she cleared her throat, as the grip around his wrist loosened and her gaze became fleeting. "L-later maybe we can do something else."

Oh. So Winry had thought about it.

The proposal, while vague and confusing, was particularly tempting - as well as amusing, because seeing Winry so suddenly embarrassed made him want to tease her - and that was enough for him to give up his book.

~

In an instant, they were out of the house: skis under her arm (Edward had a snowboard) and their face hidden by scarves and earflap beanies, but their cheeks were still red from the cold. Each of them thought about how adorable the other was.

"Let's go to the north runway, okay?" the girl exclaimed, walking away, as if Ed might necessarily agree with her decision. And of course he couldn't.

Ed stopped and turned, raising an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

"Let's go to the north runway," Winry repeated then. She had no intention of giving up.

"Winry, that track is awful, there aren't any particularly steep descents and—"

"You can see the frozen lake."

At this point she frowned visibly and, unnerved, Ed approached her, as if he wanted to face her from his recently conquered height. "You can't talk seriously," he grumbled, and Winry was sure that if he had his hands free - and not in his pockets because of the cold - he wouldn't hesitate to point a finger at her. No matter how long they had known each other, ever since they were 'officially' a couple Winry had begun to pay more attention to Ed's behavior and actions - just to minimize the fighting, she said to herself, but actually she knew it was about something else: she wanted to keep him close to her, she wanted to remember every little gesture for those moments when he would leave and loneliness would strike her.

"Are you serious ?!" Ed insisted.

Winry raised an eyebrow - _isn't it obvious?_

“Tch, forget it. If anything, we'll only go there if you can beat me in a race on my track."

"Oh," Winry gave an imperceptible challenging smile, one she'd discovered was able to make Ed angry in no time. Normally she wouldn't react that way, she would avoid the problem but, when she was with him and talked about competitions, she felt like going back in time, to when they were children, and she couldn't contain herself. "So you need your trail to beat me."

Ed's frown deepened and the distance between them narrowed. "Are you implying that I wouldn't be able to beat you on the north track?"

"Yup."

Edward's eyebrow twitched. Winry smiled internally.

"I guess I'm going to beat you at both tracks. East first. "

"North," she retorted in a flash.

"East."

"North."

"East!"

"East," she said.

"Nor—" Edward fell into the girl's snare and immediately sneered, hiding his face under the scarf. "Okay, fine!"

Satisfied with her first victory - which would certainly be followed by others -, Winry turned her back to Edward and began to walk calmly to the track she had chosen; she had been there with Alphonse just the previous day and found it extremely relaxing just looking at the landscape. Maybe with Edward she would have—

Something suddenly hit her in the back, making her jump. Snow. Edward had thrown a snowball at her. She whirled around, angrily, and looked sideways at him, who was grinning completely unrepentant.

"You better prepare for your defeat, Win." Edward sang, walking past her purposely closer than normal, just to provoke her.

And he succeeded perfectly, because without worrying about getting her gloves wet and her hands freezing, Winry put her skis on the ground, bent down and after making a very compact snowball...

"Ed."

"Mh?"

... She waited for him to turn to throw it in his face. Watching him spit snow and rubbing his face quickly with his hands was extremely funny - and it was adorable, however, how red his face was, both from the cold and from the anger and embarrassment.

"Winry... !! For real, you could try acting more like a girl... "

"You always tell me I'm beautiful when we're alone," Winry retorted with all the impassiveness she was capable of, pretending it was normal for her to hear him say that, even if it wasn't like that at all; being told she was 'beautiful' by him always had a big impact on her. However, her effort was rewarded by Edward's overreaction.

"D... don't— WINRY!" he blushed.

"Two to one for me."

"One to one, if anything," Ed replied quickly, despite he was still particularly upset.

“Two to one. If I hit you in the face, it counts double."

"Oh, yeah?" Edward then murmured, dropping his snowboard. Winry couldn't figure out quickly enough what he was going to do, and only when he bent to the ground she realized she didn't have time to hide anymore. Ed, giggling, threw a snowball at her, and immediately - just as Winry had taken her hands off her face, thinking she wouldn't be hit anymore - hit her on her shoulder. "Here's what you'll get! Three to two for me, Win!"

And so their challenge began, no holds barred.

Immediately after that double attack, in fact, Winry had promptly jumped out to an early lead by hitting Edward in the face, again. He lacked precision but not speed; Winry couldn't explain how it was possible, yet he was able to throw snowballs with incredible speed and, since they were in an open space, it was impossible to hide from the blows; the only chance of victory was to be skilled not only in hitting, but also in dodging. And they were both suckers.

But they were having fun; even though their hands were freezing, they weren't going to stop anytime soon.

"Twenty-five to twenty-two!" Edward exclaimed laughing, ready to shoot another series of bullets. "When I get to a hundred you will regret having starte- _oblrhg_ "

"Twenty-four," Winry replied: she never lost focus and was ready to launch another ball. She had begun to make them less compact, to speed them up and not hurt him too much, but the power of her throws had increased. "I'll be two hundred ahead of you."

"Like hell you wi-" two more small snowballs hit Ed in the mouth.

"Twenty-eight."

Winry was pretty sure she heard a snarl coming from his direction, but she didn't let that distract her and quickly prepared another snowball, so that when he was ready to hit her, Winry could precede him by hitting him for the fourth consecutive time with a particularly powerful blow.

"Thirty."

Maybe a little too much. When the snow reached Edward's face, his hat fell behind him and the boy lost his balance, falling to the ground. He didn't get up right away, nor did he complain or laugh, and Winry worried until she felt guilty. Maybe she had gone too far...?

"... Ed?" she called him in a somewhat hesitant voice. But he didn't turn, and remained still, his hands immersed in the snow and his head bowed. Had she hurt him? Definitively lowering her guard, she approached him, bending down to his side, raising her hand to touch his shoulder and—

Bitterly regret it.

Edward suddenly grabbed her scarf with one hand, pulling it to him, and in the blink of an eye he spilled all the snow inside it, making Winry stiffen as she took off the scarf and shook herself to wipe the cold out of her face and neck before she could get wet even under her coat.

"This counts five points, Win!" Edward laughed, way too happy, immediately jumped to his feet and walked away, preparing for Winry's revenge. However, he miscalculated: she wanted to take revenge but not only throwing snowballs. She had other plans. In fact, she remained bent to the ground, without being noticed, grabbed his hat, which remained there on the ground.

"What are you doing, you've already given up, huh?" he asked, already with some more snowballs in his hands which he wouldn't throw at Winry, at least until she got up. Attacking her like that would have been too unfair. "Well?"

At that point she put her scarf on again, stood up and turned, but keeping both hands behind her back and thus hiding what she was holding: Edward's hat, but with an unpleasant surprise inside.

"Ed..." she called, looking him straight in the eye. She used her face flushed from the cold to feign slight embarrassment. She relied on her scarf, hat and bangs to hide much of her expression, so that Edward could imagine the one he preferred. She just had to wait for him to get close and fall into the trap.

"... Win?"

And it was happening. Ed was naive when it came to her, he was sweet despite being irritating; he certainly didn't suspect anything, that's why he had dropped a few snowballs, that's why he was now in front of her, looking at her apprehensively with one hand resting on her cheek.

"Baka," he murmured in a low voice, with an expression so sweet and full of love that Winry really risked blushing and giving in. But she had to resist... and win. You take it too seriously." 

_Look who's talking_ \- she thought without answering him, just looking at him.

"S-so... we'll call it a tie?" Edward proposed, surprising her. He was obviously worried, but it wasn't enough for Winry to give up on her revenge.

The corner of Winry's lips twitched in a hint of a smile under the scarf and she slowly raised her arms to bring them around the his neck, bringing him closer. Edward didn't expect such a gesture, as he wasn't yet used to such eloquent attention from Winry, and he definitely let his guard down. It was precisely at that moment that she struck: with a sudden and unexpected movement, she put the hat over his head. With all the snow inside.

Edward's expression was so priceless that she didn't even feel guilty.

"Forty," she said, because that clearly counts ten points.

Then Edward smeared the snowball he was still holding right on her face, and then Winry reconsidered her actions: maybe getting revenge like that hadn't been a nice touch. Now it was going to be a real war.

"YOU...!" in fact, the girl thundered, red in the face with cold and shame. "Now you're gonna pay for this!"

She jumped on Edward before he could escape. He took advantage of being taller than Winry and, in a moment, he was on top of her and was covering her with more snow, immediately starting to laugh. Meanwhile she was particularly irritated and tried to chase him away and, at the same time, to get the snow off her.

“Thirty-two,” Edward counted, throwing more snow on her body. “Thirty-four! I'm catching up, Win! "

"Thirty-six!" he chuckled again, resisting Winry's attempts to reverse the situation without too much trouble. "That's what exercise is for, Gearhead."

Winry hated it when he called her like that, but she had a completely opposite feeling for the soft and unexpected caress she received on her cheek. Edward's glove was cold, perhaps colder than snow and his own skin, but the sensation she got was different; she felt it warm.

"Forty," Edward whispered. He smiled adorably and gave her a kiss on the nose. "We're even now."

"It's not fair."

"Oh, no?" he retorted immediately, lifting himself up on his arms - his hands firmly on the ground - and shaking his head to let some cold water fall on the girl's face. "What about the snow you put on my head then?"

"You put snow in my scarf."

"You never listen to me."

"You talk too much."

Edward grunted and pouted and Winry hoped this meant he was about to get up but instead, a moment later, he closed his eyes and rubbed his cold nose against hers. "Sooner or later you'll see I'm right..."

Winry muttered something to herself and turned away, looking at the snow below. She grabbed and threw it at Edward - on the face of course. He had no right to make her blush so easily.

"Thirty-five—"

"Thirty-five!" Edward shut her up. This time he had reacted instantly.

"Thirty-seven!" she countered, determined to win.

"Thirty-seven, thirty-eight—"

Finally, Winry managed to reverse their positions. "Thirty-eight!"

But not for long; with a sudden jump, Edward managed to return to the previous position, but Winry reversed it again, and that was how they started rolling in the snow like five-year-olds, shouting their scores and cheating: Winry put the snow inside Edward's coat and Edward in turn put it on her head. They were probably risking getting sick or hurt, yet they laughed. Edward's laugh was beautiful, much better than it was on the phone. Everything was different, more vivid, tangible and warmer than ever, and Winry wanted to feel it more, with more intensity.

Without thinking about it, she hugged him; she squeezed him with her hands resting around his shoulders, in his hair, and inhaled deeply. Edward was there by her side. She could finally touch him after so many months spent miles away from each other. Instead of enjoying it, what were they doing? They slept too much, quarreled and turned a fight into a challenge. It was puzzling how they could play like that, although every look and action between the two of them suggested desire and... tension. Only Edward could make her angry and then...

"... Winry?"

… soften her up with a smile, as he called her with such a sweetness voice that it made her blush. Again.

"I wanted to put snow on your back," she lied.

"Mmmh…" Edward rubbed his face on her neck, under the loose scarf, warming it with his breath, and Winry felt him smile against her skin just before he kissed her softly. "I missed you too and... I'm happy, that... well, that they left us alone."

Winry was happy too, but she didn't say it. Rather, she preferred to lift herself up, look him straight in the eye and kiss him on the forehead, gently, while at the same time rubbing snow on his lips.

"Forty."


End file.
